1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to military defense systems, and more particularly is a fast acting active protection system that is designed to defeat RPG (rocket propelled grenade) threats fired from close range.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a military operation is carried out in an urban environment, or under an ambush situation, RPG (rocket propelled grenade) threats can be fired from very close ranges. This means that there is very little travel time from the position of the RPG to the targeted personnel, and thus very little time for the targeted personnel to locate, respond to, and destroy the threats. An explosive countermunition can be used to rapidly engage the incoming threat; however, explosives significantly increase the hazard of fratricide. Several active protection systems are in various stages of development and fielding. These include DROZD and ARENA from Russia, Trophy from Israel, Diehl's AWiSS from Germany and NTAPS and SLID from the US. These systems have different characteristics, benefits, and drawbacks. DROZD is an explosive close-in countermeasure system firing from fixed tubes and offering limited coverage. ARENA is another close-in system also firing from fixed positions, with better coverage than DROZD but posing a high integration burden due to system size. Trophy is small, fast, has gimbals, and offers wide coverage, but is not multi-shot capable and its explosive may pose problems for a light skinned vehicle. Diehl's system uses a fragmenting grenade with a fairly inflexible timing scheme. NTAPS uses a tracking radar, gimbaled launcher, and rocket countermeasure with a total time line too slow for close-in RPG threats.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a protection system that has a very short reaction time in order to successfully defeat RPG and similar threats in a close-in, short-time line scenario.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system that quickly detects and targets present threats for a countermunition.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a system that minimizes the fratricide risk to personnel compared to other active protection systems while still being effective against the threat.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a system that utilizes infrared and laser warning sensors.